Incumbent mayor announces bid for third term, saying he has delivered a 'better Allentown.'

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, standing before a large poster with the words "Results. Responsibility. Vision" touted his work to revitalize the city's downtown and reduce crime as he announced his bid for a third term in office Monday.

The incumbent mayor, who, so far, has no opponent in the race, made the announcement surrounded by some of his biggest supporters at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall on Liberty Street.

When he took office seven years ago, Pawlowski said he promised to build a better Allentown, and Monday he said he had delivered on that promise. He pointed to a one-of-a-kind Neighborhood Improvement Zone established in the city, which would allow developers to tap tenants' state and city taxes, not including property taxes, to finance construction.

As a result, Allentown is a city in transformation, Pawlowski said.

"After years of business and capital leaving the city, we have brought over $1 billion in new investment and new jobs to a city once considered to be a lost cause," he said.

Pawlowski said his administration has also made Allentown a safer place to live and work.

A network of security cameras has helped city police to address and clean up criminal hot spots, and the city's police force has been rebuilt to its highest complement in a decade, Pawlowski said. Officers have also introduced smarter and more proactive policing strategies that have resulted in a six-year decline in crime, he said.

Pawlowski also touted his work to improve the city's fiscal stability. The mayor, who worked as head of community and economic development under his predecessor Mayor Roy Afflerbach, inherited an $8 million deficit when he took office. Through loans, debt restructuring and the establishment of a local services tax, Pawlowski was able to build up a $14 million cash reserve.

But an economic downturn and growing pension payments depleted the reserves as Pawlowski struggled to balance budgets without a property tax increase. Allentown began 2012 with only $1.9 million in reserves, according to the city's 2013 budget overview.

Recently, Pawlowski has negotiated more "economically feasible" contracts with the city's police and firefighters and pursued a 50-year lease agreement of the city's water and sewer system to right the city's fiscal ship.

The proposed lease — which would be made in exchange for a $150 million to $200 million payment that could be pumped into the city's struggling employee pension funds — has yet to be approved by council and has come under some criticism from residents and activists for fear that the move will increase water rates.

Pawlowski argued Monday that the lease would be the next step toward creating fiscal stability.

"Together, through a lot of hard work, we'll continue to put this city on a strong fiscal foundation," he said.

Pawlowski acknowledged that the city faced many challenges, but said that much progress has been made in the last seven years.

"We have some distance to go," Pawlowski said. "Our job is not just to climb that mountain. Our job is to move mountains."